


Half a World Away

by yikesola



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2020, COVID-19, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesola/pseuds/yikesola
Summary: Phil’s through being angry about the current situation. He’s run out of energy for it. Now he’s just feeling sad and stagnant and alone.A fic about bad timing and time zones.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 14
Kudos: 72
Collections: PhanWorksChallenge - Dialogue Lockdown





	Half a World Away

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [phanworkschallenge](http://phanworkschallenge.tumblr.com) Dialogue Lockdown Fest, and big thanks for [ahappydnp](http://ahappydnp.tumblr.com) for the heartening beta!   
> [jestbee](http://jestbee.tumblr.com) quarantine prompt: _“Established relationship but they end up quarantined apart because one of them flew somewhere for work and now can't get back. Cue pining and reminiscing”_  
>  Dialogue prompt: _“You’re not alone. I’m right here.”_

Phil’s through being angry about the current situation. He’s run out of energy for it. Now he’s just feeling sad and stagnant and alone. 

He didn’t exactly have a great grasp on a schedule before lockdown. He and Dan had tried, to varying degrees of success, over the years. He’d just gotten sloppy after Christmas and New Years, figured he’d get back into a routine after the chaos of VidCon London, after Dan got back from his trip to LA. 

But then Dan didn’t come back from LA. 

Nineteen hours before Dan’s flight back home, someone in the office where he’d had his important meeting earlier— someone whose hand, a day ago, Dan had shaken as they smiled over contracts and coffee— became California’s 114 confirmed case of Coronavirus. Which meant that instead of travelling back to England, Dan’s been holed up ever since, waiting to see if he developed symptoms and washing his hands so much they’re as dry and cracked as his lips used to be.

Phil’s been so nervous in the days since that the exhausting spike of anxiety, the way he’s perched over the precipice of an anxiety attack, is constant. It’s all he can do to pretend things are okay when he wakes up and sees that Dan has texted him “ _i’m too moist for this much california😩_ ” 

He texts back “ _💦you💦 // LA🔥🌞🔥_ ”

Dan answers “ _it’s not even summer! this should be illegal_ ”

Phil does a little bit of mental math with the fact that it’s 10am in London, which means Dan is up and texting him at two in the morning. He doesn’t have the energy to scold Dan; he’s too happy to be getting even these texts. 

He kicks his legs over to the empty side of the bed. The novelty of being able to starfish without elbowing Dan in the eye had worn off back when Dan’s trip was still in its intended stretch of time. There’s no warm skin for his cold feet to brush against and earn him a fond kick away. There’s just a sea of sheets in which Phil feels he could drown. 

In normal times, when Dan is away somewhere and Phil starts to lose his mind on his own, he’ll make some plans with Martyn and Corn, or he’ll go up north to see his parents. But these aren’t normal times. London’s on lockdown, and he can’t risk bringing something deadly and catching into his parents’ house considering all the health battles his dad has been through. 

So he spends a lot of time talking to Norman. A lot of time playing _Animal Crossing_. A lot of time cursing time zones because at least when he and Dan had to suffer through a long distance relationship back in the beginning, they had the guarantee of being on similar schedules. 

And a lot of time trying to keep himself from spiralling because he knows, rationally _knows_ , that his emotional state has no effect on global pandemics. So breathing exercises and long baths (Dan doesn’t need to know that Phil stole from his bath bomb supply, he’ll make up for it later) are the kind of things that fill quiet moments when he starts to fall into spirals. 

Though it had already been as late as ten in the morning when Phil first woke and texted Dan, he turns over and means to close his eyes for only a minute. He wakes up with an empty ache in his stomach and looks at his phone to see it’s now almost 1pm. 

His glasses are somewhere among the pillows. He must’ve pushed them off his face after falling back asleep. He finds them and makes a quick takeaway order. He doesn’t intend to leave bed again until it arrives. It’s just that kind of day. His body aches from all this horizontal time, but not enough to urge him to actually sit up. 

It seems very unlikely that Dan is awake at 5am his time, but Phil calls him on FaceTime anyways. 

Dan answers, but the room is still mostly dark and the only sound he offers Phil is an unamused grunt. 

“Morning,” Phil says. He finds that he can smile. He doesn’t even have to try. 

“I hate you,” Dan grumbles. “Time is it?” 

“Time is fake,” Phil tells him. 

Dan seems to agree, because he doesn’t argue. Instead, Phil hears a rustle and a groan and soon there is the click of a bedside lamp being turned on. He can see Dan’s sleepy face now, frizzed curls and soft pout. He’s never hated anything as much as he hates the 5,000 miles between him and Dan which is keeping him from kissing the grumpiness of having been woken up away.

He’s hungry and achy and he fucking misses Dan. All of which adds up to equal a whiny Phil Lester. 

“I miss you,” he pouts. “I hate being alone.” 

Dan rubs his eye through a yawn. He tells Phil, “You’re not alone. I’m right here,” and something tightens in Phil’s chest that makes him think he just might cry. 

“Shut up,” he smiles. “Sap.” 

“Hey, you caught me early,” Dan laughs. “You know my sarcasm hasn’t woken up yet.”

They tease back and forth until Phil hears the buzzer for his food. It does wonders, that hint of normalcy. If Phil closes his eyes and ignores the phone-voice, it’s almost like Dan’s in bed beside him again. But if he leans into the phone-voice, it’s almost like back during their five-hour Skype call days. Either option is good. Either option is better than the too-quiet flat. 

Dan hangs up long enough a few hours later to jump into the shower, despite Phil teasing that he doesn’t mind Dan bringing his phone in with him. “Anthony’s been good enough to let me stay here,” Dan reminds him. “No need to scar him for life by overhearing something.” 

When Dan FaceTimes back a little while later, his eyes are brighter and his rosy patch is rebelling against that California heat Dan had complained about before. 

He reminds Phil they’ve only got a few days left. A few days and it’ll have been two weeks. Two weeks during which Dan hasn’t displayed any symptoms. Meaning he’ll be able to get on a flight home and wear a mask the whole time and hole up with Phil for another two weeks minimum just to be on the safe side. It’s a risk, but at the end of it all— he’ll be home.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading— come say hi on [tumblr](http://yikesola.tumblr.com/post/616030048248528896/half-a-world-away) !


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